NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Pentavalent Bio Sciences Private Limited, a city-based start-up took to the winning stand at the 5th edition of Tata Social Enterprise Challenge 2016-17 held on Saturday (January 14) at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C). An initiative of the Tata Group and IIMC, the event recognized India’s most promising early-stage social enterprises that would bring about long-term solutions to India’s social needs.

Pentavalent Bio Sciences is a Bangalore-based fully integrated biotech start-up and social enterprise that provides innovative solutions from discovery to development, leveraging cutting-edge science, cost effective molecular diagnostics and new ideas and technologies in the diagnostics market. They are currently developing an innovative diagnostic tool using novel in-house FlapCut technology that detects tuberculosis (TB) in patients and helps doctors to prescribe patient-specific antibiotics for treatment.

Ecstatic with her win, Bhavani PV (Pentavalent) said, “This exposure was really required. The Jury’s input and mentoring helped us a lot in improving our business model. Initially it was only us who believed in our product, but now we believe that our product can reach the end user.”

Proposals made by enterprises were in the area of agriculture, food and dairy; healthcare, water and sanitation; technology and development; education & skills development; housing; handicrafts; and energy and microfinance/financial inclusion, among others.